TCU Exclusive: Tom Dugan Interview.

by adam | March 2, 2010

(All photos courtesy of Levi Brewer)

Tom Dugan has made quite a name for himself over the past few months with some new sponsorships, some awesome webvideos and some wild drama inducing antics. I hit him up to hopefully find out more.
What’s your name and where are you from?

Thomas Lawrence Dugan, Haysville, Kansas.
I always hear people call you Dang Dang, where did that nickname come from?

A few years ago I was on my way down to Austin for the first time, we stopped in OKC for like 2 days, and I was swooping everyone I saw (before any of us called it that) and one of the guys we were staying with (Tazz Hernandez) starting yelling “swoop the dang dang” and I did it so much it just turned into everyone calling me Dang Dang.
Haha you’re going to have to forgive me for not knowing what “swooping” and “dang dang” mean…

It’s when you get your dick and balls out with in about 0.09 seconds, over the waistband of your pants, and swing all of it around as fast as you can. Usually aimed at one person or a group of people.

So the “swoop” is the swoop of your hand getting the goods out, and the “dang dang” is your slay stick.
You have a kinda unique style of riding, who would you consider your influences growing up and now?

When I was younger I was really stoked on Alistair Whitton, because he was goofy footed too and seeing him ride helped make me not think it’s as fucked as it is, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary, Mike Aitken, Chase Hawk, Stricker, Joe Rich.

What’s your take on being goofy footed, some riders seem to think there’s something fundamentally wrong with it, I’ve always felt like it was just whatever, it’s not like people consciously make the choice, plus a lot of riders do opposite grinds and spins that make them appear goofy footed at least for those particular clips.

Yeah I feel the same, I don’t mind watching people that are goofy footed at all, I am usually just really hard on my self when it comes to certain tricks that I know look better regular, so I’ll just switch my feet around or spin the other way and make it right.
You recently got hooked up by Odyssey, how did that end up happening?

One of the guys that works at OTX Design in Austin (Ben Ward) put the word to Jim B about me and since Odyssey was in the process of moving here, Jim was in town and we all hung out and rode for a couple of days and one of the nights, actually the night that Empire ramp sesh was filmed, while we were chilling on the deck, Jim said “hey, you should be on Odyssey” and with no hesitation I said hell yeah.
You mentioned Joe Rich a second ago and I know you ride a T1, are you officially on the team for them? How did you get to know Joe?

Yeah, I am officially a part of the T1 family. Joe is one of the best dudes I have met through BMX. He and I met the Summer before I moved to TX, at Woodward West, I told him I was moving down in the Winter. We exchanged numbers and he said he knew I would love the T1 ramp and I needed to check it out when I got there. And one of the first things I did when I got to Austin was blow his phone off the hook trying to ride it. After two years here I still ride that ramp more than anything else.
How’d you end up getting helped out by Etnies?

Joe introduced us, and it’s been magic ever since.

You had a pretty memorable Props bio, how was it filming for that? Are you happy about how it came out?

It was a little hectic because we only had like 14 days to film it and my shoulder was hurt throughout it, but I think it turned out awesome, I had a lot of fun filming for it and getting to hang out with Walter Perringer, that dude kicks ass.
Yeah Walter rules… when I first met you, I said “oh shit, you’re that dude who hates water”, do you hear that all the time since the Props bio?

Haha, I’ve always hated water, and it always catches people off guard so I’m used to hearing a fuss about it, but not anymore than usual since the Props thing.
I’m just going to play the devil’s advocate here and say what someone will probably bring up in the comments, that water is drastically more healthy than any other beverage and that you can’t really expect to be healthy in general without consuming a good amount of it per day. What would you respond to that with?

I would have to say, I call bullshit. I feel great without it, I don’t need it. The few drinks I’ve had of water haven’t made me feel any bit more healthy. So fuck it.
Fair enough, but hypothetical situation, you’re home, sick. You’ve had the flu for 48 hours. You finally manage the strength to get out of bed to get something to drink from the fridge. You open the fridge and there’s a glass of water and a can of soda sitting there, what do you drink?

Can of DP, no hesitation. I probably wouldn’t even see the glass of water.
Recently you made a big splash when you put out that Hitler Lives In Austin video. Was there a certain event that prompted that video? I’m kinda curious what your mindstate was going into it.

I can’t believe how big that shit got, I didn’t send it to one person or post it anywhere other than Vimeo. But there wasn’t really one thing that made it happen, just the random bad vibes I’ve gotten, people hating on me and me loving to take shit too far.

I know the video left some dudes in Austin pretty upset, was that something you expected to happen?

I was definitely getting calls from 100 pissed off trail dudes for a week, all night & all day. It was ridiculous. And yeah I took that into consideration, but how funny it was definitely ruled giving a fuck out of the question.
As I watched the whole thing sort of unfold, I felt like I could see both sides of the situation, where obviously you just wanted to ride some dirt jumps, and the dudes who dig in Austin are protective about the jumps that they put so much time into and they feel like a lot of kids aren’t respectful of that. What’s your opinion of their viewpoint?

I think a lot of people are to quick to think someone doesn’t respect them or something they have made with a shit load of work. And I see why they would get salty about the video, I mean if you’re not really friends with me I’m sure I seem like a big ol’ ass whole. But it’s crazy to me how offended everybody got about me dicking around.
Has the whole thing cooled down or been resolved at all? You put out that video that was sort of an apology but it was still pretty over the top and not at all serious.

Yeah, I think it’s blown over for the most part. I’m sure I can’t go to a lot of trails with out some one flipping shit
but I’m not worried about it.
What has the response to your penis been since it’s been seen by so many BMXers? Have you been getting mostly good/bad feedback on your dick?

Ahaha surprisingly not much feedback at all. I figured when you put up “setting shit straight” I was going to have 100 little geeks telling me how small my dick is. I have yet to get negative feedback on my slay stick.

What about your balls, would you say the feedback on your balls has been better or worse than the comments your cock has gotten?

LOL, well balls are pretty gross. So I’d imagine the balls do not get as much love as the dick
Top 3 BMX dicks:

I’ve been staring at the screen for like 10 minutes and cannot get an answer for this question. Sorry dude.
No worries. Any shout outs or thanks to end this?